A Pain In The Neck (part 6)

...continuing the case history of my neck problem in which I 'miraculously' avoided an invasive surgery and found an alternative solution...

The Chiropractic Process – day 3

24-09-2005
Saturday morning saw me driving out to Penang at 10.15am feeling more confident that my problem neck is positively getting better. So I told the doctor.

After the initial spine and neck twisting, he must have instructed the attendant to increase the traction pressure based on my statement. Or maybe that's standard procedure. Anyway, after another slow death preview, I couldn't manage to get up from the torture rack at the first try. Attendant asked me if I'm dizzy. I said, no, just painful.

We proceeded to the next stage. This time she plugged a couple of wires to my lower spinal area in addition to the normal spots on my neck area. She said that was for the lower back pain which I sometimes had.

Like a shell-shocked and wounded soldier, I slowly drove over to my parents' apartment for lunch and swallowed a Ponstan to ease the pain and took a nap to recover. Youngest sis heard I was there, came over to compare notes. She just had an operation to remove a tumor behind her ear. Sigh....life after forty seems to revolve around some body repair shops, just like old cars having to go to workshops every now and then. Only difference is that old cars have more easily replaceable parts. If you can't find new parts you can usually find salvaged ones at junk yards.

Early evening, I proceeded to Bayview Beach Hotel for our company annual dinner. After the first few dishes a colleague sitting at our table pulled out two bottles of Merlot (red wine) to liven things up while the rest of our 1000 colleagues entertained themselves with the annual clowning by some home bred clowns with their dancing and singing ala Malaysian idol at the beginning stage where the judges kept slapping their foreheads. Except for the change in costumes and the theme, the rest of the menu's basically the same from year to year.

Unfortunately for me, the wine seemed to revive the gnawing pain. I have no idea how that can happen, but anyway, after a few more rounds of the spirit juice I didn't care anymore about pain. Another of our colleagues came over to our table with a few cans of beer and started filling our glasses. A strange thing happened. As soon as the beer went down, the pain subsided.

As if to cheer me up from my awfully low spirits, my lucky draw ticket number came up on the display board at about 10pm. I wasn't quite sure if I saw it right so I waited for it to show again. About 30 minutes later it was confirmed and I decided to call it quits for the night while I'm still sober. The alcohol has all been almost soaked up by the rest of the Yamseng guys anyway. It's a long way home to SP, and I don't have a reason to hang around for the draw on the grand prizes. Besides, I didn't want to risk meeting some cops who might want me to do a blow job on their breath-analyzer. They usually come out only after midnight.

Mom gave me a pillow which is similar to a chiropractic pillow the doctor recommended (which costs RM110). I tried it out for one night. It didn't seem to be a problem. Maybe I was sleeping mostly on my side throughout the night. Sunday afternoon I tried it again, this time I slept for an hour on my back. After I got up from the nap, I got that gnawing pain in the back of neck again. I decided the pillow's not suitable for me just yet. I had to put it away until this cervical column goes back to its original curve. I can survive the pain during and after treatment, but living with the torture all day long is too much for my liking.

By the way, guess what I got for the lucky draw? For those who have seen what's left on my head, you should know it's something which I don't really need. A hair dryer.

... to be continued...